"The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit has been separate from the main population of pygmy rabbits for thousands of years"
While wild and feral rabbits are familiar to most Washington residents, many people are surprised to learn of the existence of pygmy rabbits. And even more surprised to learn how threatened they are as a species. This week marks a milestone, as the Oregon Zoo released the last of its breeding pairs of pygmy rabbits into the wild.
The pygmy rabbit is the world's smallest rabbit species. Adults weigh about one pound, and have a body which is about 10 inches long. By comparison, the more familiar cottontail rabbit weighs a whopping 2-4 pounds, with a body that is 14-19 inches long. The cottontail is itself quite small, and many people mistake cottontail rabbits for pygmy rabbits, which can throw researchers off the count.
(The easiest way to tell the difference, aside from learning to discern the size differences, is that the pygmy rabbit is gray in color without the brown overtones of the cottontail. The pygmy rabbit also does not have the eponymous white tail that the cottontail flashes in alarm when it dashes away.)
